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‘When I first moved here we got on
perfectly well,’ Dr Hodgson, 71, said. ‘When the hedge started to get
too big, I wrote to him and asked him if he would cut it and he
wouldn’t.

‘I approached him directly and said to
him “please will you cut this hedge, it is becoming an absolute
menace”, and I got a two-page letter saying buzz off basically.

‘I wrote to the council saying it was too much of a good thing.

‘It was getting far too tall and was never cut and I could not grow proper things in my garden.

‘I am a keen gardener and I cannot
grow anything there apart from weeds. It is an ordinary privet hedge
that has grown excessively tall. I have to have the electric light
during the day. I cannot see otherwise, it is too murky.

‘It is terribly trying, we just don’t
get anywhere. There have been several court appearances. It must have
cost an absolute fortune to the council.

‘They would have been far better cutting it down themselves and sending him the bill.’

High: The feud between the two neighbours started five years ago. The enormous hedge can be seen hanging over the pavement

Dr Hodgson claims her neighbour does
not want to trim the hedge because ‘he feels he is a green person and
does not like to prevent hedges growing’. Dr Pelling, 64, insists the
hedge must stay.

He was ordered to remove it in 2009 by
Newham Council under regulations that prevent hedges growing beyond 6ft
6in and blocking light and access, but won a High Court judicial
review.

He claimed the council was ‘conducting some kind of vendetta and is not behaving impartially’.

He added: ‘I shall fight this to the bitter end.

‘The amount of money Newham is
spending on the matter – I estimate of the order of £20,000 – does give
rise to legitimate public concern.’ He said the growth of plants in Dr
Hodgson’s own front garden was partly to blame for light being blocked
from her house.

A spokesman for Newham Council said:
‘We have received a complaint from a resident regarding a hedge at a
property in Forest Gate.

‘We have contacted both parties to try
to get them to resolve it between themselves. If that does not work we
will look at what we can do next.’